First day of work Tuesday (6/1/10)

so I just got done with my first day of work! and OMG ... was it BORING! Ugh. Pretty much all i did was sit around and read manuals about how to deal with their behavior issues and their policies.. it was so boring. Towards the end my boss took me down the street to show me where they go to get clothes and cheep food and stuff though, it was kind of sad. But yah .. nothing really that interesting happened today. I guess the most interesting thing was probably that one chick got in a fight last night and when one of the staff went to do wake up calls this morning there was blood all over her pillows and sheets from her fight. And some kid came in puking at like 11:00 in the morning from being drunk... THAT morning.. not from the night before! Other than that.. nothing really. I guess I found out more about what actually goes on. So I work upstairs.. which is where the bedrooms are. And there are 13 beds that kids are able to sleep in.. so there are 13 kids living there. Some kids stay up to 3 months, other kids are there from one day to a week depending on if they get placed in a more permanent place, if they don't come back for the night, if they do something to get kicked out, etc. My boss said next week that i'll be trained on the computer system and all of the stuff they do, and i'll basically be like another staff member because they are short one right now. So that'll be pretty cool I think. But thats about it for the day!! I'm going to go back and go in the HOT TUB! Adios mates!

Monday (5/31/10)

Okay, so I just had my interview! Where to begin. So I first walked in and I was a little intimidated because a lot of the kids were standing outside smoking and being loud and obnoxious, and here I am dressed up with my northface backpack on my back. I heard one kid go WHO’S THAT! and i was like omg .. but anyways, after waiting for like 15 minutes feeling really awkwardly overdressed, my supervisors came out and welcomed me! They were both super nice but I felt so dumb because I still am not used to their accents and so I kept having to be like “pardon?” cuz I couldn’t understand them! But anyways, we went upstairs and they told me pretty much all about the program. They said that the part that I am going to be starting at is called crisis connection. That is their main building and it is for 16-21 year olds who are basically don’t have a home. Once they demonstrate that they are somewhat responsible they are moved to a different part of the oasis with assitant living and then once they demonstrate they can live on their own the are moved to a different place. Or something like that. So basically they said that the first two weeks will basically be getting me acquainted with the building and stuff (cuz its super confusing, every hallway and door looks the same), reading papers on how to deal with a lot of the behavior problems, reading the clients case notes so I can get to know a bit about the kids, helping in the kitchen with breakfast and lunch, that kind of stuff. Then he said once I get the hang of things I will be able to go to the different activities they do (like last weekend they went rock climbing). He also said that I can probably do some stuff with the school (its not like a regular school, its really informal). So yah! He basically said that i’ll be doing a lot and the first few weeks may be a bit overwhelming, but after that I will pretty much be treated like any other staff member and i’ll be able to move around a bit! So yeah i’m super excited!! The only thing he said that kind of scared me was that although its pretty quiet during the day time because they kids aren’t allowed in their rooms between 8:30 and 4, they still stand around at get drunk outside and at times they may try to harass me (great). He also said if i’m doing a night shift thats usually when crazy stuff happens so if something ever happens and he isn’t there I need to call him and talk to him and he can talk me through what happened. (like i’m going to be scared and in shock or something…) Bah. But hopefully it’ll be okay.

The rest of the day I am going to spend relaxing and getting some last minute groceries! Maybe I’ll go shopping downtown! Okay thats all for today!

Day 4 (5/29/10)

We had to be on the bus at 8:00 to start our adventures for the day. Our first stop was the olympic grounds where we only got about 10 minutes to look around. We didn’t get to see much because it is SO HUGE but we are planning on going back a different day to go to an event! Even though we didn’t get to see much it was still super cool. After that we made our way to featherdale — the coolest place EVER!!!!! We got to see the pade melon (the smallest version of the kangaroo— soooo cute!!!), wallaby, kangaroos, penguins, and KOALAS!!! It was one of the coolest places i’ve ever been because the kangaroos just run around pretty much wild there and you are able to feed them and pet them and everything. We weren’t able to hold any koalas but we could pet them! After featherdale we made out way to the blue mountains. It was extremely foggy.. which kinda sucked, but it was still REALLY pretty. I’m glad I will be going back with my parents again so hopefully this time i’ll be able to see a little bit of something. We then took a walk down the mountains in the rainforest where we ended at the very bottom. From the bottom, we took the STEEPEST TRAIN IN THE WOOORRRLLLDDD (literally, it is) up the mountain. It was so scary. We were basically going extremely fast, completely vertically up the mountain, I thought I was going to die. But i didn’t ! :) So after that we made our way back to our apartments. We got ready to go out for the night and all of our capa group met in one room to drink. We all had a really good time together and everyone was EXTREMELY dressed up. Apparently you cannot get into the bars here if you are wearing any sort of shoe that is not a heal for girls and a dress shoe for guys. So we eventually made our way down to circular quay and went to a bar near the opera house that I forgot what it was called. But it was SOOOOOO FUN!! All of the bars/clubs that I’ve been to have topped any bar i’ve been to in minneapolis! I am SO IN LOVE! And their accents… I just can’t get over them! I swear I am going to have it perfected by the time I leave!! But that was it for day 4 ! No complaints yet! :)

Day 3 (5/28/10)

I woke up feeling a little under the weather from the night before (to say the least) and we had to be downstairs again by 8:30 to go to ACU for our internship orientation. After our orientation they took us to a little restaurant where we ate… kangaroo!!!! It was okay to be honest.. It tasted like any other meat, but the thought of eating kangaroo just grossed me out. After eating, we made out way to circular quay. This was basically when I realized I am IN LOVE with Sydney!!!!!!!! It was so gorgeous. We saw the opera house and the bridge, and then we went to the Botanic garden which was one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen. Palm trees, flowers, exotic trees, blue water, blue skies. WOW. It honestly may be one of the prettiest places I’ve ever seen. And I have came to realize these last few days that everyone in Sydney is SOOOOOOOOOOO friendly!!!! They are so helpful and so nice, maybe even nicer than people from Minnesota, Wisconsin… sorry guys! Anyways, we ended up getting a bit lost downtown trying to find out bus and the train, but we eventually found it! So we eventually got back and now we are just crashing on the couches and going to take it easy for the night. We have a big day tomorrow because we are going the blue mountains and going to the zoo to pet koalas and see kangaroos!

Day 2 (5/27/10)

So I woke up in the morning and we had to be downstairs by 8:30 to go to our orientation for CAPA. They took us to the bus stop and we hopped on the red 20 to take us to central station. From central we took the train across the Sydney harbour bridge to north Sydney station where we got off and went to our orientation at Australian Catholic University where we will be having class once a week for our internship. After that, we finally went to get cell phones! YAY! Once that was taken care of we went to town hall and got something to eat. I got “bondi bites and chips” (chicken nuggets and fries). They were okay. We looked around town all for a bit then decided to go back home. We did our individual grocery shopping that was much needed and way too expensive. The new came back and went to the gym and the pool. Afterwards, Dana and I decided to go to the liquor store, where we ended up getting caught in a MONSOON! UGH. Then we came back, showered, and ate a delicious meal that Danielle made! Once we finished getting ready after dinner we made our way with our fellow capa friends to an extremely sketchy bar. We obviously didn’t stay long, and we ended up taking a taxi to my friends’ house (Bernie and Joey) from home who are still here from the semester study abroad program. They then took us over to darling harbour. The club we ended up going to was called “home” and it was seriously one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to. It was basically like we were on a boat partying because it was on a balcony looking over the water with all the city lights around us. It was awesome!!!!

Day 1 – (5/26/10)

I arrived at the airport to see Ashley and all of the other girls from the U waiting at our terminal. They were all really nice and we all clicked right away which definitely make me feel at ease right away! We got some food once we arrived in San Fran and we also exchanged our money into Australian dollars and the guy at the counter tried to rip me off at give me 400$ for 500$… I thought I showed him who’s boss by making him give me 75 more dollars.. but I later found out that I was supposed to get more back than I gave him. Oops.. oh well! Anyways, we then went to our terminal and sat and chatted for a while. Then, my roommate Danielle met us! She seemed quiet at first but once we got on the plane she wasn’t at all! On the plane we have a few glasses of wine so we would be able to fall asleep, and it obviously worked. I ended up sleeping for about 8 hours, besides the every hour that I woke up to a crying baby sitting in front of me. UGH!

After 14 and a half hours of being on a plane, we finally got to the Sydney airport and customs went extremely fast. We took a bus to our hotel in the POURING rain and we couldn’t even see out the window which kind of sucked. Once we got to our hotel we ended up going to the café down the street called CREMA that has wifi for 3$ a day. The bad news about that place is that it closes at six, so we may need to find a different location one of these days. After catching up on my facebooking and skyping, we walked to the grocery store to check out the food and prices that were OUTRAGEOUS. 45 dollars for 3 cases of soda. 20 dollars for mascara. It was ridiculous! Once we got back to the apartments they told us that our room was ready. All I had to say was WOW. They are the most amazing apartments I’ve ever seen. They would probably be about 2000 in Minneapolis. We are basically being treated like royalty except for the fact that we only get 3 channels on TV and we have no internet. After we were all settled in, we hopped on the bus, then on the train to go get cell phones, only to find out that we could not buy them because we didn’t have our passports. It was beyond annoying considering we traveled for like 45 minutes in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing. We ended up coming back and going grocery shopping. For dinner we decided to make spaghetti, but it turns out their spaghetti sauce is basically salsa.. so we ended up eating salsa over noodles for dinner. After dinner we had such bad jet leg that we pretty much just unpacked and went to be

I arrived at the airport to see Ashley and all of the other girls from the U waiting at our terminal. They were all really nice and we all clicked right away which definitely make me feel at ease right away! We got some food once we arrived in San Fran and we also exchanged our money into Australian dollars and the guy at the counter tried to rip me off at give me 400$ for 500$… I thought I showed him who’s boss by making him give me 75 more dollars.. but I later found out that I was supposed to get more back than I gave him. Oops.. oh well! Anyways, we then went to our terminal and sat and chatted for a while. Then, my roommate Danielle met us! She seemed quiet at first but once we got on the plane she wasn’t at all! On the plane we have a few glasses of wine so we would be able to fall asleep, and it obviously worked. I ended up sleeping for about 8 hours, besides the every hour that I woke up to a crying baby sitting in front of me. UGH!

After 14 and a half hours of being on a plane, we finally got to the Sydney airport and customs went extremely fast. We took a bus to our hotel in the POURING rain and we couldn’t even see out the window which kind of sucked. Once we got to our hotel we ended up going to the café down the street called CREMA that has wifi for 3$ a day. The bad news about that place is that it closes at six, so we may need to find a different location one of these days. After catching up on my facebooking and skyping, we walked to the grocery store to check out the food and prices that were OUTRAGEOUS. 45 dollars for 3 cases of soda. 20 dollars for mascara. It was ridiculous. Once we got back to the apartments they told us that our room was ready. All I had to say was WOW. They are the most amazing apartments I’ve ever seen. They would probably be about 2000 in Minneapolis. We are basically being treated like royalty except for the fact that we only get 3 channels on TV and we have no internet. After we were all settled in, we hopped on the bus, then on the train to go get cell phones, only to find out that we could not buy them because we didn’t have our passports. It was beyond annoying considering we traveled for like 45 minutes in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing. We ended up coming back and going grocery shopping. For dinner we decided to make spaghetti, but it turns out their spaghetti sauce is basically salsa.. so we ended up eating salsa over noodles for dinner. After dinner we had such bad jet leg that we pretty much just unpacked and went to bed!